By Victor Shalton
Emirates Restarts More African Destinations As Optimism Improves
Emirates has announced it will resume passenger operations to Lagos and Abuja, both in Nigeria, beginning September 7 and September 9 respectively as the airline gradually resumes operations with the safety of its customers, crew and communities as its top priority. The resumption of passenger flights to both the Nigerian cities increases the carrier’s number of African destinations to 13 and its global network tally to 84.
The carrier says it’s working hard to help its customers travel safely and confidently, implementing industry-leading health and safety measures at all points of the travel journey.
Flights to Lagos will operate four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays while flights to and from Abuja will operate as a daily service.
Passengers traveling from both cities in Nigeria to the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific can connect via Dubai, and customers can stop over or travel to Dubai as the city has re-opened for international business and leisure visitors, the carrier announced per its social media accounts.
The Emirati carrier also announced recently linked passenger services to Accra, Ghana and Abidjan, Ivory Coast beginning September 6, both operating three times weekly. The flights will be operated with Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
To ensure the safety of travelers, visitors, and the community, the airline will require mandatory COVID-19 PCR tests for all inbound and transit passengers arriving in Dubai and the UAE. This also includes UAE citizens, residents and tourists, regardless of the country they are coming from.
Emirates has expressed optimism that it will be able to operate 100% of its network of destinations by summer 2021, returning to serving more than 140 cities and gradually putting its Airbus A380 fleet back into service on routes with high demand.
Emirates deployed its flagship A380 aircraft to London; Cairo, Egypt; Paris, France; Guangzhou, China; and Toronto, and recently increased to a second daily service to London, also operated with an A380, to meet demand.
The UAE carrier also operated a one-off A380 commercial flight to Clark International Airport on August 19, becoming the first scheduled commercial flight, utilizing the iconic aircraft, to operate to the Luzon-based airport.
“We resumed scheduled passenger services to Clark on 1 August with six weekly flights and have since been witnessing tremendous demand from customers in the UAE and other cities within our network to travel to the Philippines,” said the Country Manager for Emirates-Philippines, Satish Sethi.
“In addition to marking a milestone and making its debut to Clark, the highly-popular Emirates A380 aircraft will accommodate more travellers on the flight, while allowing them to experience its unique features and safety protocols we have put in place to protect our customers and crew,” Satish added.
He is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration at DeKUT and aspiring to make a career in a more aviation-related course.